There’s a story in the Bible about a compassionate mother willing to let her baby live with another woman. She overlooked her own personal heartache to spare her child from a tragic outcome, so he would receive a chance to live a long and happy life (1 Kings 3:16-28). Allowing another woman to raise one’s child is nothing new, and reasons are often similar today.
In adoption, the birth mother desires for her baby to have a better life than she feels she can give. She makes a courageous and unselfish decision when she allows someone else to become Mom to her child. She desires our support as she anguishes over what she believes is best for her baby.
Often the child grows up thinking there must be something wrong with them. “Why didn’t my mother want me?” “How could she give me away?” “How bad a baby was I?”
The woman whose son was alive was deeply moved out of love
for her son and said to the king, “Please, my lord,
give her the living baby! Don’t kill him!”
1Kings 3:26a, NIV
As we look at the story of King Solomon’s wisdom in this circumstance, we do not see a bad baby. They may smell funny or may cry, but a baby is not terrible or unlovable. This mother loved her child, and she did not want him to die. She desired the best for her son.
I am thankful for the Cambodian mother who shared her daughter with me. She wanted to give her child a better life with plenty of food, good healthcare, and education. At the time of our daughter’s birth, her birth mother didn’t feel she could offer these things and gave from her heart. I am the one blessed by her gift.
In Cambodia there’s a mother who longs to wrap her arms around her daughter and hold her. We share a bond—two mothers loving the same daughter.
Please support birth mothers who have sacrificed so much for the future of their babies and adoptive moms who sometimes struggle to take her place. I am sure they, along with the children often caught in the middle, would appreciate our prayers.
November is National Adoption Month. Although our adoption was an international one, many children in the United States need homes and families to love them. Please consider opening your heart and home to one of these children.
Blog adapted from a post on beyondfirst.org. Used by permission.
